Friendsgiving Paris

Posted on December 1, 2017

I can’t remember the last time I spent Thanksgiving back at home ( maybe 7-8 years ago), and I must admit I sure do miss a good ole Thanksgiving with family. Thankfully, this year I was able to celebrate with friends here and it definitely was a night to remember.

Two of my dear American friends (Jessi & Amber) had the great idea to host Thanksgiving and go all out. Once they told me about it, I put the date on my calendar and had been excited ever since. Amber and her husband Adrien (Frenchie) were so kind to host at their lovely apartment in the 14th arroindissement, which is the largest place out of all of us to have a proper get together(#tinyparsianaptproblems).

Amber is a certified sommelier who is a master at hosting wine tastings at her apartment. Her husband Adrien is a manager of a Michelin star restaurant, and one of his sous-chef’s (Jerome) was so kind to take on the task of preparing the Thanksgiving turkey for us. Jessi, is the creative brains behind Ettavee and took care of the decorative touches. Not to mention her husband Pierre (also a Frenchie) who is a pastry chef and helped us with desserts. And then there is me, the team player, there to help with the food prep, and I tried my best to document the evening in between stuffing my face:)

TIP: For Mac n Cheese for example, France is the land of cheese, so you wouldn’t think it would be a problem to find cheese. However, the problem is that you have to know which cheeses will melt well, and aren’t too strong/salty to overpower the taste. A couple years ago it was hard to find classic cheddar, but now you can pretty much find it at all the grocery stores, which is not to be confused with Mimolette which looks the same but doesn’t melt. Comté and Emmental are also great cheese options for a Mac n Cheese.

Anyhoo, Amber, Jessi and her cousin Brandon that was in town from NYC took on the task of doing all the shopping at a local outdoor market Maison Blanche in the 13th arroindissement, where they found fresh produce, herbs, and flowers at an affordable price. For the other staples like milk, butter, eggs, they were able to get those things from regular grocery stores and Picard (for frozen cranberries).

Jérôme (sous-chef/ turkey master), prepared the turkeys for us that he got from his parent’s farm in Normandy. It was his first time preparing a “Thanksgiving turkey” and he totally rocked it with a “French touch”. If we had to name the turkey for a menu I think it would be called : Dinde campagnarde farcie au foie gras et rôtie au four. Instead of using traditional stuffing, he decided to stuff the turkeys with Foie Gras and rôtied them in the oven for 3 hours.

For all the sides, we prepped together the day of and got everything ready to host an epic Thanksgiving…. Things got a little stressful 3-4 hours from when guest were supposed to arrive, juggling all the dishes we needed to make, and worrying if we would have enough food. For all of us it was our first time ever preparing a full Thanksgiving meal, so now we understand how much work our parents put in while we were chilling on the couch all those years. It was also fun to see the different dishes we make at different households for Thanksgiving. In the end we pulled everything off with time to spare, we were a total of 30 people ( 5 Americans, and majority French), and the night couldn’t have gone more smooth.